ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. — Stacie Wagner was up late one night when she saw a Facebook post that changed her life.
"There's a gentleman, Wally, who lives here on the first floor...he put a post on the Elizabethtown page right after everything shut down…and asked where he himself, a senior citizen, and his disabled neighbor, could get help with food."
The post deeply impacted Wagner and she immediately got to work by starting a Facebook page "Feeding our Elizabethtown seniors."
"It started with a restaurant...they were shutting down and they gave us like an overwhelming amount of soups and food, and it just went from there," Wagner said.
And go from there it has: Stacie's group on Facebook has hundreds of followers and in 22 months, she's provided over 4,700 meals to seniors.
Cooking up a storm, Wagner has enlisted friends, family, her church community, and others to aid in this massive endeavor, and the feedback has been incredible.
"It's been awesome, everybody's been so supportive,' she said. "Every time I put a request up there for help or donations, everybody's been great. I didn't realize...I never thought it would last this long."
For the residents of the Whistlestop View apartments, many of them said that Wagner's presence during the pandemic was more than just a friendly face, she was a bright light, a source of comfort and friendship when so many were isolated at home.
"For a lot of them, I was the only face that they were seeing a couple of months into the program," she said.
For Wagner, she says the residents have changed her life.
"It's like, I still think of myself as 29, so I say I have an entire building of grandparents," she explained. "They're stuck with me, they're not alone. They're stuck with me forever now."
All over our area, there are people who are not just doing good, but Multiplying Good.
Every year, we honor them with the Jefferson Awards - a nationwide foundation that celebrates amazing acts of public service. This year is FOX43's first season of being a Jefferson Awards Media Partner.
You can nominate someone for a Jefferson Award by clicking here.